Wednesday, November 10, 2010

I am so excited! A few days ago I became a proud owner of a really cool kitchen tool TofuXpress. I wanted to get one after reading about it online even though I was a bit skeptical at first. I could not figure out what was the big hype about a plastic box with a metal spring. I thought that it was just an overrated gadget that I could live without, but it turned out that I was wrong.

I am amazed with this little gadget. It is so easy to use and it works great. When I put my tofu block in TofuXpress, in a matter of seconds it squeezed out a puddle of water that I could see above the tofu immediately. The recommended time for pressing is one hour, or overnight. I decided to leave it in the fridge overnight. I can honestly say that this pressing tool exceeded my expectations. I expected that I would have a tool that would make my life easier when it comes to tofu pressing, but I didn't expect that it would make the tofu taste or look better. After using TofuXpress, my tofu became very dense with a nice smooth texture that reminded me of mozzarella cheese. It was fascinating to see how much unnecessary water was pressed out. I was never able to press out nearly as much water with any pressing method that I had ever used. Not to mention all the mess, all the wasted paper towels, dirty dishes, baking pans and ridiculous "tofu towers" consisting of a whole pantry worth of canned food and half of my bookshelf.

My TofuXpress came with a marinating lid (very useful), instruction booklet, recipes and 1-year limited warranty. I was happy to find out that I could use it not only for pressing water out of tofu, but also for pressing frozen thawed spinach and other veggies.

This kitchen tool is a little pricier, but unlike most kitchen gadgets it was not made in China, but it was made and assembled in the U.S.A. It is quite impressive that the company decided to make it here instead of letting someone make it cheaply in China. TofuXpress is worth every penny and I highly recommend it to everyone who is tired of soggy tofu, wasted paper towels, messy kitchen and dirty dishes. I also recommend it to people who are afraid of tofu and cooking with tofu. TofuXpress will change the way you look at tofu!

Tofu before and after:

Marinating tofu:

I have already used it three times. I know that I will be making tofu dishes more often now since I have my new tool. Here is a recipe that I came up with after using it. I used the leftovers to create another meal later. I am working on another recipe that I will post soon. It will be a Marinated Tofu Cheese.

Here is a recipe for Eggless Scramble Sandwich with Watercress. I wanted to make this scramble more authentic so I tried to mimic egg-like color by adding turmeric, and egg-like taste and aroma by adding Black Salt (Kala Namak) to the tofu. Black Salt is a special type of Indian mineral salt that is actually pinkish grey rather than black. It is very high in sulfur so it smells and tastes like hard boiled eggs. If you don't have any Black Salt use a regular salt instead. Watercress has a nice peppery flavor that reminds me of radishes.

Eggless Scramble Sandwich with Watercress

1 14-oz package extra firm tofu

1-2 Tbs. oil

1/3 cup chopped onion

1/4 tsp. turmeric

1/4 tsp. Black Salt (optional)

salt and black pepper to taste

bread of your choice

watercress

vegan mayo

Drain tofu (preferably using TofuXpress-placing tofu in TofuXpress and pressing for at least 1 hour, or overnight).

Crumble the tofu and set aside. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute for 2-3 minutes.

Enjoy this eggless scramble on a sandwich with watercress and vegan mayo. You can also eat the scramble by itself.

I added the leftover scramble to a fried rice to make it look like a real "fast food" fried rice. I made some fried tofu that I marinated in TofuXpress and served it with the fried rice. I used a simple tofu marinade made with oil, soy sauce and rice vinegar.

5 comments:

I bought one of these babies a few months after its release, as soon as I could scrape up the money. It was well worth it! My old cast-iron pan way of pressing did the job squeezing some water out of tofu, but this thing REALLY got the liquid out and changed the entire texture of the tofu. We love how tofu soaks up the marinades now.

So would having one of my older dogs who likes to sleep all day lay down on a block of tofu for half an hour be considered animal abuse? That's what I usually do and it makes him feel like he's helping out around the kitchen instead of being a freeloader.

Monique: I highly recommend the TofuXpress, you will use it a lot and you will love it! I have been eating more tofu than ever before thanks to this tool. That saves me money on fake meat, too. I usually press the tofu overnight and then start marinating it in the morning and by the time I come home from work it is ready and it is just perfect.

Dave: As long as that tofu does not get hairy I don't see any problem with this method :o)

About Me

I am a Czech Vegan living in America. I am working on my first vegan cookbook. On this blog I share my recipes, my thoughts on vegan living, vegan products reviews and other fun things. Two of my recipes were published in the Vegetarian Times magazine, as winning recipes in their recipe contests (November/December 2010 issue and September 2012 issue) and another recipe was published by Eating Well in the cookbook EatingWell Fast & Flavorful Meatless Meals: 150 Healthy Recipes Everyone Will Love (2011), and Eating Well magazine (August 2012 issue).
I love cooking and baking, running, and I enjoy veganizing Czech and American recipes. I am an animal rescuer, chocoholic and a tea lover.
I would like to mention that some of the products that I talk about on my blog were generously given to me with no obligation to write a positive review. If you make vegan products and want them to be featured and reviewed on my blog, let me know. You can email me at czechvegan (at) yahoo.com. My old email address czech.vegan (at) yahoo.com was compromised so I can no longer access it.